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beige_alertI had a great time at Duckon. It seems like a lot of people did.
Duckon migrated yet again to a new hotel. This time, a really nice one. The building is in great condition. There was plenty of space, and all the function space is grouped together. It ended up being art show and dealers room on one side of the lobby, everything else all together on the other side. None of this some things here, some things way over there, some things down the hall, past the restaurant, through the lobby, down a hall past a hundred guest rooms that must be nice and loud being on the only hallway connecting the two sides of the hotel, down the stairs, down a hall, around a corner, over the river, and through the woods. It seemed like a reasonably simple building. For some reason, lots of hotels, which are inevitably going to be occupied by people who don’t have a lot of time to figure out the layout of the building, seem to be odd and confusing shapes, a partial octagon fused to a triangle or something, so you couldn’t even explain how to get from place to place if you knew---Well, you go down this hall, and turn left, but not all the way left, then you get to a place where you have to turn either left or right. Both directions look exactly the same. Anyway, you go whichever way turns out to be correct (I don’t remember), then turn 45 degrees left and then... None of that in Naperville. The con suit was on the seventh floor, which is a bit out of the way, but not too bad. A seven floor building with three elevators is a lot better than a 25 floor building with three elevators, and the seventh floor is a reasonable stair-climb for some of us. Sure, I can walk up to the twentieth floor, too, but that’s a project. It’s gonna take some time. The seventh is a practical journey. The stairs were really ugly, dark, and dirty, clearly intended to be used only in a fire, but that is nearly universal. I’m just spoiled because I work in one of the rare buildings with clean, nice, brightly-lit stairways.
I saw the opening ceremonies, which were very entertaining. I suppose that’s a function of entertaining guests. RJ and Uncle Kage qualify.
There was much stuff to do at this convention. Since I saw most of the filk stuff I didn’t see too much of the other stuff. The big thing I did see was the high-voltage demos. The hair raising experiences with the Wimshurst machines, and then the Tesla coil zapping of CD-ROMs outdoors. I imagine every ham radio operator in the region was amazed at the QRM. I didn’t see the art auction, but I did buy one piece, a fractaly-thing, that didn’t go to auction. I also ended up buying four CDs from the Ropers, two books, and ordering the coming really-really-really-soon-now Riverfolk CD.
The “live and unrehearsed” Black Book Band concert was great. So was the Wild Mercy concert, complete with pterodactyls carried around (giant inflatable)/launched into the air (small, foam) by enthusiastic children. Tom Smith was wonderful. So were Eric Coleman, Rob Middleton, Samuel Clemmons, Susan Urban and Sandy Andina, and, of course, Riverfolk. It seems MEW hadn’t heard the Riverfolk vampire song (what is the title?), and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tigertoy and I got plenty of photos of her and Gwen giggling uncontrollably.
K’Elvis, the Klingon Elvis impersonator, was truly remarkable. I suppose Elvis is like Shakespeare---best in the original Klingon.
On Saturday morning Betsey talked me into joining the choir for the singing of Witnesses Waltz at closing ceremonies. It seemed like she was searching the halls for anyone who looked like he could sing low. She asked if I sing tenor or bass, and I replied that I don’t really know. This was good enough for them. The bass part, which is what I apparently sing, is written in bass clef, which, as a flutist, is not what I’m used to. They did find some basses who actually know how to sing, though, so it worked out OK. Considering that we never had everyone together all at the same time for any of the rehearsals, and that some of us were chosen on the basis of looking like we could sing low, I think it went pretty well.
I was not the only person at the con to wear a periodic table t-shirt. Indeed, mine is inferior to many, since mine does not have glow-in-the-dark radioactive elements. The music+science=sexy shirt from the webcomic Questionable Content (available from the merchandise page) goes over really well with filkers. The Hitachi “Get Perpendicular” shirt (sounds like a sexual reference, actually a promotion for hard disk drives) is also good.
Lots of my friends and acquaintances were there, and lots of hugs were shared.
I have a gigabyte of photos to sort through and edit. I’ll put some up in a Flick set eventually.
Duckon migrated yet again to a new hotel. This time, a really nice one. The building is in great condition. There was plenty of space, and all the function space is grouped together. It ended up being art show and dealers room on one side of the lobby, everything else all together on the other side. None of this some things here, some things way over there, some things down the hall, past the restaurant, through the lobby, down a hall past a hundred guest rooms that must be nice and loud being on the only hallway connecting the two sides of the hotel, down the stairs, down a hall, around a corner, over the river, and through the woods. It seemed like a reasonably simple building. For some reason, lots of hotels, which are inevitably going to be occupied by people who don’t have a lot of time to figure out the layout of the building, seem to be odd and confusing shapes, a partial octagon fused to a triangle or something, so you couldn’t even explain how to get from place to place if you knew---Well, you go down this hall, and turn left, but not all the way left, then you get to a place where you have to turn either left or right. Both directions look exactly the same. Anyway, you go whichever way turns out to be correct (I don’t remember), then turn 45 degrees left and then... None of that in Naperville. The con suit was on the seventh floor, which is a bit out of the way, but not too bad. A seven floor building with three elevators is a lot better than a 25 floor building with three elevators, and the seventh floor is a reasonable stair-climb for some of us. Sure, I can walk up to the twentieth floor, too, but that’s a project. It’s gonna take some time. The seventh is a practical journey. The stairs were really ugly, dark, and dirty, clearly intended to be used only in a fire, but that is nearly universal. I’m just spoiled because I work in one of the rare buildings with clean, nice, brightly-lit stairways.
I saw the opening ceremonies, which were very entertaining. I suppose that’s a function of entertaining guests. RJ and Uncle Kage qualify.
There was much stuff to do at this convention. Since I saw most of the filk stuff I didn’t see too much of the other stuff. The big thing I did see was the high-voltage demos. The hair raising experiences with the Wimshurst machines, and then the Tesla coil zapping of CD-ROMs outdoors. I imagine every ham radio operator in the region was amazed at the QRM. I didn’t see the art auction, but I did buy one piece, a fractaly-thing, that didn’t go to auction. I also ended up buying four CDs from the Ropers, two books, and ordering the coming really-really-really-soon-now Riverfolk CD.
The “live and unrehearsed” Black Book Band concert was great. So was the Wild Mercy concert, complete with pterodactyls carried around (giant inflatable)/launched into the air (small, foam) by enthusiastic children. Tom Smith was wonderful. So were Eric Coleman, Rob Middleton, Samuel Clemmons, Susan Urban and Sandy Andina, and, of course, Riverfolk. It seems MEW hadn’t heard the Riverfolk vampire song (what is the title?), and
tigertoy and I got plenty of photos of her and Gwen giggling uncontrollably.K’Elvis, the Klingon Elvis impersonator, was truly remarkable. I suppose Elvis is like Shakespeare---best in the original Klingon.
On Saturday morning Betsey talked me into joining the choir for the singing of Witnesses Waltz at closing ceremonies. It seemed like she was searching the halls for anyone who looked like he could sing low. She asked if I sing tenor or bass, and I replied that I don’t really know. This was good enough for them. The bass part, which is what I apparently sing, is written in bass clef, which, as a flutist, is not what I’m used to. They did find some basses who actually know how to sing, though, so it worked out OK. Considering that we never had everyone together all at the same time for any of the rehearsals, and that some of us were chosen on the basis of looking like we could sing low, I think it went pretty well.
I was not the only person at the con to wear a periodic table t-shirt. Indeed, mine is inferior to many, since mine does not have glow-in-the-dark radioactive elements. The music+science=sexy shirt from the webcomic Questionable Content (available from the merchandise page) goes over really well with filkers. The Hitachi “Get Perpendicular” shirt (sounds like a sexual reference, actually a promotion for hard disk drives) is also good.
Lots of my friends and acquaintances were there, and lots of hugs were shared.
I have a gigabyte of photos to sort through and edit. I’ll put some up in a Flick set eventually.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-15 07:38 pm (UTC)FLICKR!!!! soonsoonsoonsoonsoonpleasepleasesooonsoonsoonsoonsoon :)
I had a great time too!
Date: 2005-06-30 01:09 pm (UTC)kelvis.blogspot.com
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Date: 2005-07-05 08:24 pm (UTC)I'm glad I'm not the only filker who liked that shirt. And QC in general. :->